


Crank Up the AC

by MissingMyMind



Series: Gimme Sympathy (I Don't Want It) [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships, Powerless Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:06:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2123013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissingMyMind/pseuds/MissingMyMind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What a morning. Darcy Lewis had just been minding her own business, doing her regular routine of hunting down Stark with paperwork, when the next thing she knew, the tower was attacked and she woke up some place that is definitely not Kansas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crank Up the AC

**Author's Note:**

> God, these are so not in order. Aw well. Also, freshly edited, as I am changing some of the things for this series. Oops...

Shuffling the stack of papers in her arms, Darcy Lewis tried futilely to blow the escaped strand of hair from her messy bun out of her face. Growling at the lack of result, she risked whiplash by tossing her head to the side. The hair refused to move from across her eyes. She grumbled under her breath what suspiciously sounded like threats to just cut it all off as she hurried across the bustling lobby to the elevator.

It was a typical day at the Avengers Tower, with her chasing down her brilliant, yet irritating boss, attempting to get him to actually do his damn job. Oh this particular day her main goal was to get Stark to sign the blasted incident reports from the latest fire in the labs. He was making her task incredibly difficult by freaking running away and hiding from her. Was it really that hard for him to act like an adult?

"Hey, JARVIS," she called out once the elevator doors closed behind her, "Where is he hiding?" They had been through this routine so many times before that she didn't even have to tell the AI who she was looking for.

"Mr Stark currently resides on the forty first floor, Miss Lewis," the disembodied voice answered politely. Hiding out with Dr Bruce "Fluffy" (as Darcy referred to him) Banner then. She noisily blew the hair away from her face again.

"Thanks, J," she sighed, leaning against the elevator wall as she ascended.

"My pleasure, Miss Lewis," if it was possible, the AI sounded almost as weary as she felt. Now, that was the awesome thing about her and JARVIS, they were total bros and she could always count on him to help her handle the eternal five-year-old that was Tony Stark. If only she could get him to start calling her Darcy instead of 'Miss Lewis!' The elevator dinged, signaling her arrival and pulling her out of her musings.

"Anthony Dakota Stark," she sang out, only to be met with silence and an empty lab.

"Apologies, Miss Lewis. The Avengers have been called to assemble. Mr Stark and Dr Banner have just departed. I would suggest moving to the nearest safe room, though the threat level is relatively low at this point in time," JARVIS cautioned.

"Figures," Darcy muttered in disgust. She walked quickly through the lab to the opposite hall, where the safe room for that floor was located. In a tower that not only housed some of the most advanced scientific and mechanical experiments, but the entire superhero team, 'safe rooms' were deemed necessary and swiftly installed. Fully decked out with temporary provisions and first aid, they even included seats with buckles and each room was specially designed to absorb impact should the building collapse. All in all, a great place to lie low in an emergency. Too bad she never had the time to make it there, and wasn't that just bloody typical?

Without warning, the side of the building blew in, knocking her off her feet. Coughing and struggling for breath, she squinted through the debris and dust in the air. The lab was dark, whatever hit the building must have knocked out the power. Not even JARVIS appeared to be online. Everything was fuzzy and her eyes were gritty. She rose on unsteady feet and swiped her hand across her face, blinking dust out of her eyes. Somewhere in the rubble she had lost her glasses. Without them she could just make out the shape of what could only be the hole torn in the building. Before she had time to even take a step, there was a brilliant flash of green light and something heavy slammed into her. The shrill ringing in her ears faded away as she lost consciousness.

Darcy woke with a gasp, her eyes snapped open, only to be blinded by the searing light of the sun bearing down on her through the leaves overhead. Hissing she threw an arm over her face to give her eyes time to adjust. Moving her limbs brought a whole other level of pain, as if she had spent too long exposed to the sun, even though she had woken up under the shade of some sort of tree. Confused and feeling vaguely sick to her stomach she managed to pull herself to her feet, using the trunk of the tree for balance. Once standing, the cobwebs cleared from her head. She started as soon as the view came more into focus, or at least into as much focus as her poor eyes were able to without her glasses. She had been lying on the edge of a beach, blindingly white sand, leading to what could only be the ocean. Alarmed, she forced herself to focus on one thing at a time. Her body continued to ache and the skin felt tight as if she had one hell of a sunburn, but on further inspection of her forearms and legs she was not able to find any evidence of burnt skin. Which meant it was probably safe to assume that it was magic that had dumped her here. Wherever "here" was. A frenzied check of her pockets revealed she didn't even have her phone on her. The blood drained from her face and she became dizzy again at the realization. Stark had no way of knowing where she had been magicked off to, if he even knew she was gone in the first place. Dear lord, she was stuck on an island, god knows where in the ocean, with no way to get home and no way to contact anyone for help. Okay, time to explore this rock. Before she started to really freak out.

Figuring one way was as good as the other, she turned left and on unsteady feet started her trek down the beach, staying as close to the shade of the tree line as much as possible. Whew, if she had thought it was hot before, now that she was moving it was as if someone had turned the sun from "bake" to "broil." In no time she was drenched with sweat and discarding articles of clothing. Not that she had many to remove mind you. Already she was down to her tank top, having removed her cardigan and t-shirt, and seriously considered removing her jeans as well. It was not like anyone was going to see. Yet, bugs. Ew. The heat was worrying though. If she didn't find running water soon, she was likely to become dehydrated and develop heatstroke.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, she decided to take her chances and venture into the trees. She had not stumbled upon any water so far, other than the ocean on her right, and desperately hoped her luck would be better inland. There also had been no sight of any human presence. The entire island was so silent, the only sound coming from the occasional warm breeze coming off the water rustling the leaves and various small animal sounds. At this point she would have been happy with any company!

Time continued to stretch on as she struggled through the thick brush. Finally, once she felt as if she would spontaneously combust if she took another step, she heard the gurgle of water. The sound was almost enough to make her cry. You know, if crying had not been life threatening. Pushing on towards her salvation, she managed to nearly miss the leather clad body partially concealed by the undergrowth. As in, she totally would have missed it if she had not been blind as a bat and freaking tripped over it. When she scrambled back to her feet, her heart rate skyrocketed and her breath caught in her throat. She recognised that leather.

“Loki,” she whispered in fright. The question now, how the hell had he ended up here? She didn’t want to believe that the obvious answer was correct. Though Thor had removed the sceptre that had been controlling his mind from his presence, she still had a hard time trusting him. Even after he had joined the Avengers in a part-time alliance. It probably had something to do with that fact that he had used her as a meat shield that one time he tried to break into SHIELD to retrieve the sceptre. That would have been enough to make anyone a little bitter for sure. He had been thwarted by the Avengers and confined while the effects of the sceptre faded. Six months had passed since then. From what she had heard, it wasn’t a pretty process. Something along the lines of a drug addict going through withdrawls. According to Thor, once the sceptre’s grip had been eliminated. Loki was more like the brother he remembered, if a little more cruel and withdrawn. Over time he also slowly regained his true magic, which turned out to be quite useful when he had finally agreed to work with the Avengers. The strangest result of all that happened was the friendship that formed between Loki and Tony. Which sucked for Darcy, since she didn’t want anything to do with the trickster. Still, she had seen some of the epic snarkfests Tony had had with him. She had to admit, those were hands down the most hilarious interactions she saw between any of the inhabitants of the tower. And now, somehow, he was here on this island. Therefore, he had probably “gone bad” again. Definitely not because he had tried to save her from whatever had attacked the tower. Nope, not a chance at all. Making a face when she finally accepted that, fine, maybe there was a small possibility that he was there because he had tried to protect her, she poked him with her foot.

“Hey, you still alive?” The only response she got was a wheezy groan.

“Huh,” she breathed, running her hand through her beyond salvageable hair. Whatever was left of the bun had fallen out when she landed, or so she assumed. “What am I going to do with you?” she questioned, resting her hands on her hips. Unsurprisingly, she received no answer.

“That really can’t be comfortable,” she continued, noticing for the first time that he was laying with his face smushed into the rotting layer of greenery on the ground. It would probably be best if she rolled him over so he could breath. Kneeling down, Darcy grabbed his arm and wedged her shoulder under his shoulder and heaved, for all the good that did her.

“Jesus Christ, you weigh a ton!” she gasped, blinking sweat out of her stinging eyes as she strained to shift his weight. No luck. Time for a different tactic. She dropped his arm and searched around for a sturdy branch to use as a lever. Cackling in triumph she jimmied the branch between Loki’s body and a protruding root and leaned. Nothing happened. Cursing to herself she leaned on the branch with her whole body. That was a mistake. She shrieked when the branch broke, sending her ass over tea kettle.

“Fuck youuuuuuu,” she scowled at the prone body beside her. Maybe she should just leave him for now. Go back to him after she finally wetted her parched throat and sandpaper-y tongue. Before she could decide, the god groaned and shifted.

“What are you doing, mortal?” he demanded, rolling himself onto his back and glaring at her.

“Trying to make sure you didn’t suffocate in dead leaves,” she retorted, not bothering to move away. Movement was too much effort at that point. “Didn’t seem like a very dignified death to me.”

“Thus you thought the best course of action was to impale me with this branch?” he queried, lifting the offensive object and flinging it away.

“Well, I wouldn’t have had to try the branch if you didn’t freaking weigh as much as an elephant!” she bristled, hoping he wouldn’t lash out at the insult. Instead he sat up with a cut off chuckle, as he grabbed his head, a fleeting look of discomfort flashing across his face.

“Hey, dude, you alright?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows and watching as his skin faded from dark blue to flesh toned and back again.

“Leave me be!” Loki snarled, turning away from her.

“Fine!” she snapped, clenching her fists in anger, “I will, as soon as you zap us back home. There is no way I am letting you leave me here.” He mumbled something that she didn’t quite catch.

“What was that?” she asked, dread collecting like a cold stone in the pit of her stomach.

“I can’t,” he admitted, voice choked like he had to force the words out.

“H-how is that even possible?” she stammered, jolting to her feet. “What happened to being an almighty god?”

“Enough!” he roared, rushing to his feet and crowding her against the nearest tree. She swallowed, realising she had pushed him too far. Sweat rolled down her back, leaving an unpleasant itch in its wake. Facing her fear, she gazed up at his face, retort on her tongue, only to be shocked into stillness. His eyes, normally green, were a deep shade of red, like they had been replaced with rubies, and his skin was translucent, dark blue swirling under the surface. What the actual fuck was going on? Is that what happened when he lost control? Was he all blue? But that was beside the point. Focus, Darcy. He was all up in her personal space, and she really needed him to back off last Tuesday.

“NO,” she blurted, shoving him back, “it’s not enough! I refuse to believe we are stuck here. I can not believe that you are that useless. I do not want to die out here.” Okay, so that might have been a bit dramatic, but could you blame her? She was stuck on what appeared to be a deserted island with an ex-super villain, who was apparently completely powerless.

“Do not think you know me, you stupid mortal,” he spit, skin violently swirling blue.

“Then tell me, how is it?” she urged, sliding around the trunk of the tree, putting more distance between them.

“The tower was attacked by a sorceress who goes by the name, ‘The Enchantress.’ I have had the displeasure of encountering her before, back on Asgard. While battling, we collided with the tower. Where we happened across you. She used a spell - one I am not familiar with,” he explained, with a grimace, “whatever it’s purpose, it drained me of my power as I was casting my own teleportation spell. You were caught in the crossfire.”

“Un-freaking-believable,” she groaned with a facepalm, “Of course I was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. Freaking figures.” She took a cautious step towards him, close enough that he was in touching distance. “So if you are magicless, how come you’re blue?” she asked, poking his cheek where most of the blue was showing through. His eyes widened and he stumbled back with a gasp, pivoting away so she could no longer see his face.

“Woah now!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up, “chill dude, it was just a question.” Flexing her fingers, she was surprised to discover that they were tingling as if she had just touched ice.

“So much for magic,” she groused, “your skin is freaking cold.” The look of disgust Loki shot her over his shoulder was enough to freeze her on the spot. “Okaaaaay, we won’t talk about the blue elephant in the room. Instead, maybe we should focus on finding that water I hear over yonder. I don’t know about you, but I really need water or I’m gonna pass out,” she added. Loki nodded stiffly and started off through the bush in the direction of the sound. Wiping sweat from her brow, she followed him. A wave of relief washed over her when they quickly came across a small stream, barely more than a trickle, located in a natural clearing, only to be crushed when she was denied a cool and refreshing drink due to the water being warm.

“At least we have water,” she reminded herself under her breath, downing the water pooled in her cupped hands. Once her thirst had been quenched, she joined Loki under the shade of one of the trees surrounding the small clearing. He was lounging among the roots, looking nonchalant and cool as a cucumber. His colour was slowly returning to normal, and his eyes were no longer red, but their usual vibrant green.

“What the hell, dude?” she questioned, collapsing beside him, “how do you not have heatstroke right now? You’re freaking wearing head to toe leather.” Her voice broke him out of his reverie and he glanced at her out the corner of his eye. He was silent for a moment.

“You are aware of my… true lineage, courtesy of my brother, are you not?”

“I knew you were adopted,” Darcy shrugged.

“I am of Jotunheim,” he replied, nearly spitting out the name.

"Okay, and?" She questioned. Honestly, it did not seem like too big of a deal to her. After Thor left the first time she had gone and done her homework, reading any Norse mythology books she could get her hands on. The books had often told stories of how monstrous the Jotuns were, but Loki had not been raised by them, he had been raised as an Asgardian. Loki blinked and furrowed his eyebrows, thrown by her question.

"Are you mortals so unaware that you do not know of the monsters that Frost Giants are?"

"Okay, you're adopted, so what? It's not like the colour of your skin - which I'm assuming is somehow related - or the blood in your veins is what determines who you are. That's all on you," she informed him, "again, I'm making an assumption that your pretty blue skin is something you got from your birth parents. Does that also mean that you have snow or winter-y voodoo too?"

"You are very strange, mortal," he said at last, after a stunned silence.

"I've been told that, once or twice," she replied with a hesitant smile, "seriously though, how are you not passing out in that get up? I'm in my tank and jeans and I'm about ready to get naked to cool off!"

"As a Jotun, I am capable of regulating my internal temperature," he grimaced, as if the name left a bitter taste in his mouth. "If I were not so magically depleted I would also be able to freeze anything with a touch."

"Cool!" Darcy was suitably impressed, but then again, she thought most magic was impressive. Probably due to her own lack of magic. Man, wouldn't that be neat though?

"So what do we do now?" She asked, poking at a lump of dead leaves with her toe. "Walk and search for any signs of civilization, or hang out here, where we know there is water?" Loki pondered for a moment, squinting up through the canopy of trees at the sky.

"I estimate the time to be approximately midday. I believe it would be more to our advantage to stay close to the stream until it has cooled off, at the very least."

"Awesome," Darcy said sarcastically with a sigh. She pulled her legs up and rested her head on her knees. "What do you think our chances are of actually being found?" She asked, voice muffled by her knees.

"With all of the technology at Stark's disposal, I do not see why it would take more than a day to locate us," he assured her, which was weird. Really weird. Suddenly she felt even less hope for their supposed rescue.

"God, it's hot," she cursed instead, sitting up and pulling at the top of her shirt in a futile attempt to create air flow and cool down. She glanced at the god out the corner of her eye to gauge his reaction to her complaint. He appeared indifferent to her predicament. Pouting, she shook her limbs free and starfished out on the really, really uncomfortable ground. Ow. She shifted around until she found a spot that was marginally less uneven and closed her eyes to nap. Which would have been awesome as she had had enough excitement and could totally have used the nap, if it had not been too bloody hot to do so. After a while of unsuccessful napping, she opened her eyes and sighed softly. She peered up at Loki, who was definitely dozing, the bastard. His skin was no longer shifting between colours. She wondered if that meant he was starting to regain his magic.

"So is it only your body you can cool down, or is it also an area affecting thing? Can you keep something cool without freezing it into a block of ice?" she asked. If she had to suffer so did he dammit! As long as it did not end in her death anyway. With a weary sigh through his nose, he lazily cracked open his eyes and glared at her.

"'Cause, being able to keep stuff cool would be a really handy skill to have right now, you know? Especially when you are stuck on a deserted island probably somewhere in the Caribbean with someone who is practically dying from the heat," she continued.

"Cease your prattling," Loki commanded, "it is not a skill I particularly enjoy utilizing. I am not fully certain of my capabilities."

"Huh. Well. Wanna find out?" The look he gave her clearly showed his questioning of her state of mind.

"Very well," he finally relented, holding out his hand to her.

"Aw yissss," Darcy cried happily, latching on and pulling herself up to the root he was resting on. She watched in fascination as his skin faded from pink to the deep blue she had caught glimpses of previously.

"That is so cool," she breathed, reaching out to touch his cheek. He flinched back, keeping his skin out of her reach.

"Sorry," she apologised, pulling her hand back to her lap, "when you're ready." Loki took a breath and nodded. Tentatively she placed her hand on his cheek.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed, smiling in delight and the cool sensation spreading from his skin down her fingertips. "This is so awesome!" Impulsively, without registering how truly bad of an idea it was, she brought her other hand up and squished his cheeks together, giving his lips a fish-like look. Appalled, he moved as if to pull back, but stopped when she grinned up at him. He sighed again and settled back against the tree. She scooched up closer to him, maintaining her contact.

"Thank you," she moaned, the relief from his cool skin outweighing the embarrassment she should have felt at making such a sound. Loki certainly looked uncomfortable enough for the both of them. Soon she found herself curled up against his side, hands returned to wrap around her knees, soaking up the cold practically coming off him in waves. She smiled to herself as she spied the baffled look Loki was sporting. It looked as if he didn't know how to deal with someone other than his brother being so comfortable in his presence. That was going to have to change. If - when they got back home she was going to make more of an effort to interact with him. If one good thing was to come out of this 'vacation' it was her getting to know and understand the man beside her. Sighing contently, she closed her eyes and snuggled closer, finally drained enough to pass out for a bit.

When she next opened her eyes she found she had been woken by an arm around her waist tightening. Well that was a surprise. Guess even the 'iceman' needed comfort sometimes. She sleepily wondered, when she observed that the sun was setting, if he had fallen asleep and done it subconsciously.

"Well, aren't you two cozy," a robotically filtered voice said dryly, drifting down to them from above. Darcy nearly gave herself whiplash looking up.

"Boss!" she cheered as he descended, followed closely by the Quinjet. She patted Loki on the arm as she sprang up, to let him know that she wasn't ashamed to be found cuddling with him.

"'Sup Reindeer Games?" Tony . Loki nodded in acknowledgment, but didn't say anything.

"How did you find us?" Darcy questioned, launching herself at him as soon as he was in reach and giving him a bear hug.

"Wasn't easy," he admitted, once he raised his faceplate and patted her awkwardly on the back in what he probably hoped was a comforting gesture.

"Had a helluva time getting a lock on you," Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, aka ARMS, supplied, stepping out of the landed jet, shooting Loki the stink eye. He was followed closely by Doctor Banner, who had recently shorn off his beautiful locks. Tony gently pushed her out of his bubble as Banner approached, medkit in hand.

"Once the fight was over and JARVIS informed us you were missing I immediately ran scans for your phone and iPod," he explained.

"Which I don't even have with me," Darcy sighed mournfully. She looked back at Loki, who was keeping his distance, and motioned him over with a slight jerk of her head. He glared briefly, obviously feeling put out at being summoned, but obliged her anyway.

"No, but technically your bracelets have trackers in them too," Tony added.

"Oh shit! I forgot about them!" she snapped her eyes down to her wrists delicate-yet-stronger-than-they-look silver and red bracelets rested. "And you still couldn't find me?"

"Something was scrambling the signal," he frowned at the bracelets as if they personally offended him. Which was likely, as they were created by him and he was not very happy when his creations did not act like he designed them to do. With the exception of JARVIS of course. Tony might bitch about how he had not programmed the AI to act like he did,but Darcy knew he secretly loved it.

"If I may inquire as to the true intention of the devices? It cannot just be for tracking Lewis, that is paranoid, even for you, Stark," Loki piped up, still standing on the outskirts of their little gathered, carefully keeping the rest of them between himself and Hawkeye. Before anyone could reply, they were interrupted by another voice in the sky.

"Brother! Lady Darcy!" Thor's voiced boomed as he suddenly appeared above them, landing with a loud 'thud.' As soon as he was firmly planted on the ground he swept them both up into a group hug.

"It brings me great happiness to see you both are well," he grinned, releasing them and clasping their shoulders. Darcy grinned as Loki rolled his eyes and shrugged Thor's hand off.

"Yup, we're great. Now can we please finish this discussion, and check up on the jet, where there is air conditioning?" she requested, eagerly walking over to the Quinjet. She smiled to Bruce as she passed him, and he smiled softly back, returning his stethoscope to his bag.

"You heard the lady, let's mosey," Hawkeye commanded, following her and claiming his spot in the cockpit as pilot.

Once they were settled and Bruce had finished his exam, declaring her only mildly dehydrated, then continued the conversation.

"I still wish to know the purpose of these devices," Loki commented from his seat beside Darcy. It made her feel warm and fuzzy inside that he seemed to be reluctant to drift too far from her.

"Yeah, and I want to know why the hell you couldn't find me with these," she added, lifting up her arms to indicate the bracelets.

"Woah, woah, one at a time!" Tony exclaimed, hands up to stall any more questions. "Long story short, Darcy is a special snowflake and contains more electromagnetism than should be physically possible. She also has no control over it, which is why she has these , kjxnifty things around her wrists. They help normalize her levels so she stops frying all my computers. As for why we couldn't find you," he turns now to Darcy, "your levels are all screwy again and messing with the tracking chips, making you practically invisible to our sensors."

"And?" she prompted, waving her hands in a 'get to the point' gesture.

"We noticed there was a lot of interference in this area. Like, a lot more than there should be for a little rock in the middle of the ocean. So we took a shot in the dark and hoped you would be here. Frosted Flakes was a surprise though," Tony added with a grin, holding up his phone that had a horribly incriminating photo of Darcy curled up in Loki's embrace on the screen. "Have we got an office romance going on here?" Darcy wished she could smack the shit eating grin off his face.

"Ew," she stated, scrunching her nose and looking at Loki, "no offence, but ew." Loki grimaced in agreement and stood up. He stalked over to Tony, and swatted the phone out of his hand. Hard. It skidded across the floor to stop by Darcy. She picked it up with the intention of returning it to Tony, but could not hide her smirk when it sparked and smoked. Tony made a strangled noise of pain.

"Oops," she said, unapologetic.

"We shall never speak of this again," Loki scowled, seating himself regally across the jet from Darcy.

"Couldn't agree with you more, Ice Baby," Darcy replied, sitting back in her seat and grinning at her own stupid joke.

"I quite dislike you, Lewis," came the retort, which was obviously Loki-speak for 'I may find your presence somewhat tolerable.' Exhausted, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep, a smile still on her lips. How was it her life that the Avengers, superheroes, and saviors of the city, cared about her like they did?

The last thing she heard before completely drifting off was Tony pipe up, "so what I don't get is how come you didn't just zap yourself back to the tower, huh?" She silently wished Loki luck in dealing with Stark as he explained that one. **  
  
**

Waking with a start, Darcy Lewis swore violently, flailing around in her bed, sheets wrapped tight around her legs. Kicking the blankets off, she flopped back down, scrubbing sleep out of her eyes, trying to calm the erratic beating of her heart.

“Are you in need of assistance, Miss Darcy?” JARVIS’s smooth voice came over the intercom, “I am picking up reading of distress from your room.”

“Shit,” she swore under her breath, “sorry J, I’m fine. Just a dream. And one hell of a fucked up one at that.” Shaking off the last of the jitters, she climbed out of bed. The dream had felt so real and was so vivid, it made her stomach turn just thinking about it. After all, Loki was dead. He was also the psycho that had tried to take over her planet. Ugh.

No longer able to sleep, she once again made her way to the common levels, deciding comfort food was a must after that. She needed a date with Ben and Jerry. Once she had reached the kitchen she made a beeline for the freezer, digging around for her favourite flavour, Rocky Road. It was a classic.

A quiet “hey” startled her from her thoughts. With a yelp, she jumped back, ice cream at the ready to be thrown. Sitting on top of the fridge was Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye. He looked relaxed, but she could still see his eyes scanning the room continuously. She had only met him a few times, as he did not technically live in the tower, and she wondered why he was here now, and why the hell he was on top of the fridge.

“Are you serious right now???” she hissed, “why are you on the fridge? Are you just waiting around to scare unsuspecting people? Is that how you get your kicks? GAWD.” She knew that probably was not the case, but her dream had shaken her pretty bad, and then he scared her as well. Slamming the door, she stomped to the couch, not giving him time to respond.

“Sorry,” he said from right behind her, making her jump again. She hadn’t even heard him move from the fridge to the couch. She glared at him as he hopped over the back and settled down beside her. “I really wasn’t expecting anyone else to be up this late.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” she quipped, removing the lid from the ice cream and taking the first glorious bite. It was amazing what could be solved with ice cream. She took this time to study him. He looked tired, dark bruise-like circles under his eyes, and a haunted look in his gaze. She wondered when the last time he had slept. God, was everyone in this building insomniacs? 

Sighing, she handed him her precious Ben and Jerry’s, “hold this.” He complied, though he did look momentarily confused before she pulled out the blankets from the storage under the couch cushions. Plopping back down in her spot, she nestled until she was in the middle of her makeshift next. Holding out one hand, she gestured for him to give the ice cream back, and threw one of the blankets at him with the other. It wasn’t a surprise when he caught the blanket, deflecting it from his face. As a spy-ssassin, he would obviously need the quick reflexes. Without a word he followed her lead, wrapping himself up in the cozy blanket. Once he was settled, she offered him her ice cream.

“I haven’t found anything that a night with Ben and Jerry couldn’t fix,” she told him firmly. With a lopsided grin, he took the offered treat.

And that was how she found herself bonding with the world’s greatest marksman/Avenger

Man, her life was weird.


End file.
